proceeding southerly to another, standing on an eminence one
hundred and twenty feet high, the same massive and peculiar style
of architecture is observed. This building is in the form of a
parallelogram. It has square pillars, an exterior gallery, and a
saloon sixty feet long, by ten and a half broad. This room has a
large frontispiece, on which are executed, in stucco relief, female
figures, with children in their arms, all of the natural size, but
without heads! On each side of the doors leading to the gallery, and
on each wall, there are three stones, nine feet in height, and three
feet broad, all of which are covered with bas-relief and hieroglyphic
figures. None of these ingeniously-executed specimens of art afford
a solitary ray of light by which to arrive at their meaning, and
a better knowledge of the people by whom they were executed. The
gallery is paved throughout with smooth and well-fitted stones. Parts
of the building are in ruins; and, in proceeding from it, masses of
other ruins are seen; which lead to the conclusion that they are the
remains of edifices once connected with it.
Passing on a short distance, in a southerly direction, through a
small valley, another building is entered by a flight of steps
leading to a gallery and a saloon, similar to those we have noticed
in the other edifices. At the door of this saloon, are to be seen
numerous allegorical ornaments, in stucco work, which, like the
others, surprise us by their curious and grotesque character,
but which yield us no additional information in regard to their
origin or design. At the east of this building, three others are
discovered, situated on high triangular mounds. These are small,
and nearly square, being fifty-four feet long, by thirty-three
feet broad. They present the same antique style of architecture,
but have roofings, or turrets, covered with various ornaments and
devices, in stucco. One of these has a gallery, much decayed, at the
end of which is a saloon, with a chamber at each extremity. In the
centre of the saloon is an oratory, nine feet square, with a stone
at each entrance, having upon it a bas-relief figure of a man in
full length. Other curious figures are to be seen on various stones
in this room. The stone pavement is smooth, and admirably matched.
This being perforated, and a hole made about eighteen inches in
diameter, a round earthen vessel was discovered, one foot in size,
cemented to another of the same dimension and quality. Pursuing
the excavation, a circular stone was met with, which, on removal,
presented a circular cavity containing a _lance_, made of flint, two
small pyramids, and the figure of a _heart_, made of crystallized
stone, called by the natives _challa_. Two other small jars, with
covers, were found, containing a ball of vermilion, etc. Near the
entrance to this oratory, in another cavity, was also discovered
small jars, with similar contents. It is presumed that this place
was devoted to the remains and memorials of heroes, and those who
had distinguished themselves in the public service, and that the
bas-reliefs and inscriptions were intended to commemorate their names
and exploits. These relics, so securely deposited beneath the stone
pavement, whether private relics of individuals, or supposed to have
been possessed of some remarkable properties, sufficiently prove, by
the situation in which they were found, that they were held sacred by
the people, or the priests of the temples.
Two other buildings, examined, have the same architectural character,
and are divided in a similar manner, the bas-reliefs only being
different. In one of these, and under the stone pavement of an
oratory, were found the same flint, lance, conical pyramids, heart,
and jars; and in another was also found articles of the same
character, which, with various bas-reliefs, etc., were removed. It
has been thought, from some similarity in the workmanship of these
fragments of art to those of the Phoenicians, Greeks, and Romans,
that they were derived from the people of those nations. The same
analogous character has been remarked in the various specimens of art
found elsewhere in this once renowned city, as we shall have occasion
to show, in speaking of the stupendous aqueducts, fortifications,
etc., to be seen in various other parts of this once populous place.
In digging near these buildings, a great variety of other articles
were found, which, with specimens of bricks, mortar, etc., have
been removed. The remainder of the fourteen edifices do not differ
materially from those described; while some of them, as may be
imagined, have suffered much from the effects of time, and are now
crumbling amid the sea of ruins. Why, indeed, these have baffled
the effects of untold ages, and come down to us as trophies of human
art, while far and near is only to be seen a general wreck of matter,
it is impossible to say. The probability that they were erected and
used for sacred purposes, may afford us reasonable grounds for the
inference, that they were either more securely built, or that, if
the causes which depopulated this vast city, arose from the ravages
of a victorious enemy, their hallowed character preserved them from
the hand of the spoiler. Time, and the researches of the anxious
antiquarian, may disclose the causes which stripped the city of its
splendor, and of its innumerable inhabitants; a circumstance much to
be desired by the curious and the learned. This inquiry, in fact,
is the first that suggests itself to the reader, or the observer.
What could have swept so many human beings from this immensely
populous city? Was it some fatal pestilence, that suddenly blotted
from existence two millions of people? Did some awful convulsion of
nature crush, by one overwhelming shock, all the magnificent fabrics
that, for sixty miles around, adorned the plain? Or did some rude
and exasperated foe, of countless numbers, fall upon the devoted
city, exterminate its population, and lay its beauty and greatness
in undistinguishable ruins? These are questions which naturally and
irresistibly present themselves at this view of our subject; but
they are those to which no satisfactory solution can yet be given.
From some data within our reach, there are afforded reasons for
concluding, that a fearful and destructive pestilence once devastated
this fair land, and swept off its previously happy inhabitants by
one common death; while there are others, said to be derived from an
authentic source--the records of the people themselves, preserved
from the general wreck of arts, and inscribed upon tablets--which go
to prove that a great proportion of the people were destroyed by the
most painful and wretched of deaths, _famine_. The latter, we are of
the opinion, has the better claim to truth. There are also reasons
for believing, that a neighboring enemy, powerful and barbarous,
rushed down upon this quiet people from the north, and drove them
from their magnificent city. Of the inhabitants of this wild and
savage nation, who, like the Goths and Vandals in overrunning the
south of Europe, came rushing upon southern cultivated plains--as
in all ages of the world they are found to have done--we shall also
have occasion to speak more at length. Like the people of other
remote nations, it will be seen, likewise, that the most desperate
and bloody struggles were here carried on, the particulars of which
are preserved; and, not being generally known, will be found to
possess deep interest, and to be in no respect behind those recorded
of the most extraordinary of ancient eastern nations. The interest
of these particulars will be much enhanced, by the connections which
may be traced between the original inhabitants of the United States
and those of Central America. Whether the Palencians themselves
were ever engaged in deadly strife with northern barbarous people,
save, perhaps, on the occasion of their being suddenly driven from
their great city, remains a matter of doubt. This is considered
improbable, however, from the fact that no warlike implement has yet
been discovered among the ruins of the Tultecan city. And a very
extraordinary fact it is, that this people had no knowledge of
the use of iron; nor had they for mechanical, domestic, or warlike
purposes, a solitary iron implement! The question, we are aware,
will immediately suggest itself: 'How, then, did these people rear
those mighty superstructures--ay, even a whole city, surpassing all
others in extent, and that, too, of hewn stone, admirably fitted
throughout--if they had no knowledge of iron tools?' Such was,
nevertheless, the fact. The people to whom we refer, as having been
engaged with surrounding nations, in long and destructive warfare,
were the descendants of the primitive Tultecans, or those of their
successors, the Aztiques, while the most ancient occupants of this
continent, the ingenious builders of, and quiet residents within, the
Palencian city, were insulated, for ages, from all other people of
the earth.
The first narrative of observations made among the ruins at Palenque,
to which we have referred, were mysteriously withheld from the
public for nearly forty years. After having been written out by the
explorer, in conformity with public orders, it can only be supposed
that the extraordinary facts communicated by him exceeded belief, or
that, if thought true, and they should be made public, they would
induce visits from strangers which might be annoying to the Spanish
authorities. Visitants from foreign countries would thus become
acquainted with the internal policy, the tyrannical misrule of the
government over the virtuous natives, and with the natural resources
of their rich and extensive country. For these, or other reasons past
conjecture, the description of the ruined city was suppressed; and it
remained secreted in a convent at Guatemala, from 1786 to 1822, when,
after the revolution in that ill-fated country, it was discovered
thus hidden, by a foreign traveller, taken to London and published
in the above last-mentioned year. Copies of this work have for many
years been extremely scarce in London. To the particulars there made
known were added an ingenious and learned treatise by a distinguished
Catholic priest upon the origin of the Tultecan people, with many
other highly interesting facts and speculations connected therewith.
This subject has since received enthusiastic attention from several
individuals, whose names have been mentioned. It was from having
been employed to engrave the illustrations of the above work,
that Waldrick, the most indefatigable of them all, was induced
to cross the Atlantic for the purpose of visiting the ruins
himself. Particulars respecting the adventures and researches of
this devoted man, during twelve years' seclusion among the ruins;
the base and outrageous robbery committed upon him, 'by order of
the Mexican government,' in wresting from his possession all the
valuable drawings that he had been for years employed in making;
together with other facts and illustrations collected by other
adventurous inquirers; the records of the arts, the singular dresses,
hieroglyphics, symbols, and particularly the great Teöculi, and other
immense structures, will follow, in order of time and place.
'Ages and realms are crowded on this span,
This mountain, whose obliterated plan
The pyramids of ages pinnacled.'
From the hasty sketch here given of these remarkable people and their
structures, it will be seen, that comparatively little attention
was given to them by the Spanish government, or their agents. This
is justly attributable to the well-known suspicion and habitual
indolence of both the authorities and their subjects, either of
which, on a topic like this, stamps them with disgrace, in the
opinion of all enlightened men. The government itself seems not
to have been satisfied with the account given of these extensive
ruins by Del Rio; for, in 1805, Charles V. despatched a Captain
Dupaix on the same duties; since which, two other voyages have
been undertaken, by the same enterprising explorer, for the like
purpose; and now, the accounts of this individual constitute the
best we have of the ancient Palencian city. They were published in
France about a year since, and form, with the accompanying splendid
illustrations, an expensive and voluminous work. It was from this
work that Lord Kingsbury gleaned the materials for his still more
costly, but, it need not be said, less valuable, work. The sole
effort of the noble lord, in this ponderous treatise, is to prove
that the people of whom we have been speaking, were none other than
the _nine-and-a-half lost tribes of the house of Israel_; an effort
contributing as little to truth as it does to the establishment of
his absurd theory. It will appear a matter of surprise, to every
impartial inquirer, and to those at all acquainted with the facts
in the case, that such an opinion has been endorsed by others: but
it might be stated, that the character, not less than the expense,
of the book in question, will effectually preclude it from general
perusal. We shall elsewhere state the curious facts on which this
theory is based; one of which, we may remark, _en passent_, is, that
the temple, of which we have given a partial description, closely
resembles the far-famed temple of Solomon, a fact which, though not
denied, proves nothing, abstractly. Reasons exist why this isolated
truth cannot be made available in a hypothesis so plainly opposed
to the first principles of physiology, not to say probability.
Whatever theory men may devise, to account for the origin of the
Tultecans--and there have been others not less crude and chimerical
than this--it is philosophically true, that they differed from all
others in those distinguishing characteristics which have ever been
assumed as the criteria of distinct species of men. The accompanying
representation, which is an exact copy, shows in a striking manner
the peculiar form of the Tultecan head, and the curious symbolical
designs with which they are generally ornamented. The peculiar
physiognomy of this people is not less forcibly delineated in the
drawing. Both the characteristic conformation of the head and facial
outline is preserved in all the specimens of sculpture hitherto
found. In connection with the Tultecan peculiarities alluded to,
those of their dress were not less remarkable. These, if we except
perhaps the sandals worn on their feet, exhibit a strange combination
of splendor, ingenuity, and oddness. So unlike were they to those
of any other nation, that we can perceive no reason for supposing
them derived from any prëexistent people. They were so designed and
executed, as to represent the most notable data in individual and
national history. This may be seen in the form and embellishments
of their dress, as sculptured, and evidently described by phonetic
characters, upon the various tablets found among the ruins of
Tulteca. Curiously interwoven, and yet highly ornamental, are the
personal achievements, civil records, and religious faith, supposed
to appear in the paraphernalia of their habiliments; and these are
observable in the head-dress represented below. Some, however,
were much more complicated, and when exhibited on solemn religious
occasions, as at the great annual ceremony on the plains of Cholula,
in all the varieties of form and gorgeousness of coloring, and, as it
is supposed, by millions of people at once, presented, altogether,
the most grand and imposing spectacle the world has ever witnessed.
[Illustration]
It may in truth be affirmed, that in no people have distinctive
characteristics been more apparent, and more clearly defined. For the
present, therefore, they must stand by themselves as a part of the
human family; and they should be treated as a distinct and peculiar
race of men. This fact gives to our subject, as before remarked, a
romantic and unique character. Finding this people, as we do, so
far advanced in a knowledge of the useful and ornamental arts as to
preclude any rational inferences in respect to their derivation from
previously extant people, and so completely and so widely detached,
in a geographical point of view, from all other nations, bearing
resemblance in their arts, their social institutions, and in many
striking physical peculiarities, as to afford no plausible theory
by which to trace their oriental connections, we are left entirely
disenthralled from speculative opinions; and, hereafter, we may be
allowed to dwell upon novel and animating truths, without being
warped by prejudice, or swayed by conjecture.
VIVE LA BAGATELLE.
I LIKE not your care and sorrow,
Care to-day and care to-morrow;
I like not your brows of sadness--
Give me rather tones of gladness;
A heart where laughter loves to dwell,
Exclaiming, 'Vive la Bagatelle!'
What is fame?--an empty bubble,
Nothing worth, though earned with trouble;
What are riches?--can mines of wealth
Buy happiness--contentment--health?
Nor fame nor riches own a spell,
To wean me from 'La Bagatelle!'
There is a time for every doing,
A time for working and for wooing;
A time when we can all be gay,
Cheat Sadness of her hoped-for prey,
Lock monkish Sorrow in his cell,
And hey! for 'Vive la Bagatelle!'
Then live the dance, and live the song,
And live Joy's gay and happy throng;
Then live the laugh, the joke, the pun--
Live frolic, fancy, sport and fun;
And let their song in chorus swell,
Its burthen, 'Vive la Bagatelle!'
LE CHANSONNIER.
THE BACKWOODS.
NUMBER ONE.
JUBA.
READER, were you ever in Carolina?--in that part, I mean, where the
long, swelling range of the Blue Ridge begins to decline gradually to
the fair and fertile plain, '_et molli se subducere clivo_?' I shall
take it for granted you have not, and do most earnestly recommend you
(if you be not prejudiced with tales of fevers dire, which attack
only the stranger,) to wend your way thither, if practicable, the
ensuing season. Have you been cramped over the counting-house desk
till your frame pines for purer air? Seek the mountains; inhale the
balmy and bracing breeze from our thousand wood-capped hills; and
thank heaven that the air is free. Have you moved in the monotonous
and mill-horse round of city life, either in its high or its low
dissipation and frivolity, till your heart is sick within you at
its hollowness and vanity? There shall you see men of Nature's own
make, not starched into a precise formality, nor with souls and
limbs alike fettered with artificial restraint, but with nerves, and
elastic frames, that do credit to their 'raising,' with quick feeling
and buoyant hopes sparkling in their eyes; in a word, Backwoodsmen.
Perhaps you may see an individual of the half-horse, half-alligator
tribe; but the species is nearly extinct, and physiologists will soon
reckon them among the Megatheria of past ages--the Hipposaurus of
America.
If pure air, glorious scenery, deep woods, the sports and pleasures
of forest, field, and fell, and the assurance of full welcome, allure
you not, I consign you, _sans replevin_, to Dyspepsia, the city
demon, and leave you heartless, hopeless, stomachless, to all the
horrors of indigestion.
'T was summer; not this summer, nor last summer, but the first of
June, 177-.
The sun, robed in a mantle of crimson cloud, had risen some hour or
more over the high hills which branch off from Table Rock. Their
round and undulating tops were fast changing from azure to purple, as
the light fell gradually upon them, while here and there some massy
pine, standing single from his fellows, his dark form in bold relief
against the glowing and gorgeous sky, seemed champion of his race,
tossing defiance from his waving and mighty limbs. The glorious tint
of a southern heaven, liquid and pure, spread in its intensity of
hue over the wild and magnificent scenery of the distant landscape.
The far summits of lofty mountains, whose rough peaks were dimmed
by distance, running in long succession from the north-east, and
suddenly breaking in the square and precipitous outline of Table
Rock, formed the back-ground of the picture. From the back and sides
of these swelling ridges, the land fell gradually in a series of
hillocks, some crowned with the primeval forest, as yet untouched by
the axe of the settler, some clothed with the verdure of the rising
crop, and declining into deep and peaceful valleys, through which the
wild mountain streams, girt with a fringe of green, rushed to the
lowlands.
On one of the most beautiful of these green knolls stood, at
the time of our story, the family residence of Charles Edwards.
Embowered, as is the custom of the country, in the verdant embrace of
wide-spreading trees, saved from the destruction of their companions
of the forest, its white walls and wide piazzas gleamed through
their screen, and the bright rays of the sun, reflected from the
upper windows, sparkled like fire through the shade. In front of the
mansion, a long and broad avenue, composed of the magnolia, pride of
our woods, and the white-limbed sycamore, extended to the main road,
which passed at some distance from the house.
The free mountain breeze stirred the dark green and varnished leaves,
and bore away the powerful perfume of the magnolia, sighing the while
among the foliage, as loath to leave so sweet a resting-place. The
wild carol of the happy birds came in rich melody upon the listening
ear; all was full of a deep and quiet joy; and nothing marred the
tranquillity of the scene.
Suddenly, far down in the vale, through which the road wound upward
to the hills, rose the notes of a bugle, faint in the distance; borne
slowly by, upon the light wind, they faded away in indistinct melody.
Again it rang more clear, and soon the full power of the blast passed
by, awakening the mountain echoes, which repeated its brilliant
tones far in their deep recesses; then the heavy and rolling sound
which precedes the approach of cavalry, broke upon the ear, like the
muttered growl of the gathering thunder before a storm; while at
times the sharp clash of steel scabbard and stirrup, and the ring
of bridle bit and chain, as the impatient steeds tossed their proud
heads, came nearer and more near. The troop was still concealed by
the deep copse that bordered the road; but as they wheeled into the
avenue, the sunlight flashed on polished helmets and glittering
equipments, and the whole air was stirred by their martial music.
At a rapid pace they advanced upon the house, and filing through the
gate, divided into two parties, one of which surrounded the house
and the other the 'quarter' where the negroes had their dwellings,
to provide against escape. After the usual orders had been given, as
to the disposition of sentinels, and the hasty refreshment of men
and horses, the officers advanced to the house, and with repeated
knocking, demanded admission.
Here we will leave them for awhile, and betake ourselves to better
company.
* * * * *
CHARLES EDWARDS was the descendant of a family which early settled in
the province, and had long possessed the lands on which he himself
lived. His father, who died long ere the seeds of disturbance in
these colonies had begun their rapid and stormy growth, was devotedly
loyal to his king, had held high office under the crown, and
thoroughly imbued his son in his own principles. The more effectually
to insure his attachment to the mother land, he was early sent there
to be educated, and in the time-honored halls of loyal Oxford,
Charles received those impressions which are so apt to be our guides
in future life. But he also there learned the birth-right of an
English subject, and the correlative duties of a government. He had
returned to America, and held high rank in the judiciary, until a few
years before the revolution. He had married, and was the father of a
son and daughter.
The times which tried men's souls came on, and severe as the struggle
was, to rend from his heart-strings all that he had most venerated,
he failed not to do it. He gave himself to his suffering country; he
cast his all into the scale; and though infirmities prevented him
from personally engaging in her cause, his advice and counsel were
not wanting. He had sent his son, a noble youth of twenty, to join
Sumpter, with such hardy spirits as would follow him, and himself
retired to his family mansion, to rouse the western mountaineers.