The purpose of this volume is to give a summary of what is known of
American Antiquities, with some thoughts and suggestions relative to
their significance. It aims at nothing more. No similar work, I believe,
has been published in English or in any other language. What is known of
American Archaeology is recorded in a great many volumes, English,
French, Spanish, and German, each work being confined to some particular
department of the subject, or containing only an intelligent traveler's
brief sketches of what he saw as he went through some of the districts
where the old ruins are found. Many of the more important of these works
are either in French or Spanish, or in great English quartos and folios
which are not accessible to general readers, and not one of them
attempts to give a comprehensive view of the whole subject.
Therefore I have prepared this work for publication, believing it will
be acceptable to many who are not now much acquainted with the remains
of Ancient America, and that some who read it may be induced to study
the but as Ancient America covers all time previous to the discovery by
Columbus, they may not be deemed out of place. Materials for the paper
on "Antiquities of the Pacific Islands" came to me from the Pacific
World while I was preparing the others. The discovery of the Pacific is
so intimately connected with the discovery of America, that this paper
would not be out of place even if the Mexican and Peruvian traditions
did not mention that a foreign people communicated with the western
coast of America in very ancient times.
WORCESTER, MASS., _November_, 1871.