THE DISCOVERY OF A STATUE CALLED CHAC-MOOL, AND THE COMMUNICATIONS
OF DR. AUGUSTUS LE PLONGEON CONCERNING EXPLORATIONS IN THE YUCATAN
PENINSULA.
[Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, April 25, 1877.]
The most perfect remains of a high degree of early civilization on this
continent are to be found in ruins in the central portions of America.
Proofs of the extraordinary advancement of the inhabitants of those
regions, in architecture and art, at an early period, are not derived
alone or principally from the accounts of Spanish voyagers and
chroniclers, which agree substantially in the statements of their
observations, but much more from the well-preserved ruins of numerous
beautiful buildings, constructed of stone, many of them ornamented with
bas-reliefs and hieroglyphics. In Mexico, about which Spanish historians
of the time of Cortez and after, have written with more particularity,
the vestiges of the civilization of the 16th or previous centuries have,
in a great measure, been obliterated by the more complete and
destructive subjugation suffered at the hands of the conquerors, and by
the continuous occupation of the acquired provinces. Probably the early
constructions of the Mexicans were not generally composed of so durable
materials as those of the neighboring peninsula. Without discussing this
point, the fact remains that Yucatan, together with much of the
territory of Guatemala, Chiapas, and Tabasco, is strewn with ruins of a
character which command the admiration and challenge the investigation
of antiquaries. Waldeck, Stephens, Charnay, and Brasseur de Bourbourg,
have brought these wonders of an extinct civilization to the knowledge
of the world. Since their investigations have ceased, and until
recently, but little has been done in this field. In 1873, however, Dr.
Augustus Le Plongeon, a native of the island of Jersey, of French
parentage, together with his wife, Mrs. Alice Dixon Le Plongeon, an
English lady, attracted by the wealth of opportunity offered to them for
archæological study in Yucatan, visited that country, and have been and
are still actively engaged in exploring its ruins, photographing and
taking plans of the buildings, and in making excavations, which have
resulted in securing to the scientific world, a masterpiece of antique
sculpture differing essentially from all specimens known to exist of
American aboriginal art.
Dr. Le Plongeon is an enthusiast in his chosen career, that of an
archæologist and an explorer. Without the energy and strong imagination
he has displayed, he would not, alone and unassisted, have braved the
dangers and privations of a prolonged residence in the wilds, surrounded
by perils from exposure to a tropical climate, and from the dangerous
proximity of hostile savages. All that can be learned of the life of
this investigator is, that he was educated at Paris, and in 1849 went to
California as an engineer, and there laid out the town of Marysville.
Then he visited Peru, and travelled with Mr. Squire and took photographs
of ruins. He came to New York in 1871, with three valuable paintings,
which he had procured in Peru, two of them said to be Murillo's, and the
other the work of Juan del Castillo, Murillo's first master. A long
account of these pictures appears in the "New York Evening Mail" of
March 2, 1871. He took them to England in the same year, and is said to
have sold them to the British Museum. Since his residence in Yucatan,
both the Doctor and Mrs. Le Plongeon have been engaged in archæological
studies and explorations among the ruins of Chichen-Itza, Uxmal, and
Aké, and they have also visited other ruins in the eastern part of
Yucatan, together with those of the once famous islands of Cozumel and
Mugeres, and have there pursued the same system of investigation. They
are at present at Belize, British Honduras, where this explorer is
awaiting a reply to his appeal, as an American citizen, to our Minister
at Mexico for redress for the loss of the statue which he had
discovered, and which has been removed by the government to Mexico,
without his knowledge or consent, to be there placed in the National
Museum. The writer is in possession of many of Dr. Le Plongeon's letters
and communications, all of them in English, and very interesting to
antiquarian students. It is regretted that the shortness of time since
receiving the more important of these documents will prevent doing
justice to the very elaborate and extended material which is at hand;
but it is with the hope that interest and coöperation may be awakened in
Dr. Le Plongeon and his labors, that this crude and unsatisfactory
statement, and imperfect and hasty reference to his letters, is
presented.
The conspicuous results of Dr. Le Plongeon's active and successful
labors in the archæological field, about which there can be no
controversy, are the wonderful statue which he has disinterred at
Chichen-Itza, and a series of 137 photographic views of Yucatan ruins,
sculptures and hieroglyphics. All of the photographs are similar to
those which appear in heliotype, diminished in size, as illustrations of
this paper. They consist of portraits of Dr. Le Plongeon and of his
wife; 8 photographs of specimen sculpture--among them pictures of men
with long beards; 7 photographs of the ruins of Aké, showing the
arrangement of so-called _Katuns_--the Maya method of chronology; 12
photographs of Yucatan Indians; 60 photographs of the ruins of Uxmal;
and 48 photographs of the ruins of Chichen-Itza, including twelve views
relating to the discovery of a statue called Chac-Mool. These pictures,
and the relics found in the excavation from which the statue was
exhumed, as well as the discovered statue, are valuable acquisitions,
and establish a strong claim to the gratitude of the scientific world.
Besides these articles, the original head and feet of a female idol in
plaster, from the Island of Mugeres, have been discovered by Dr. Le
Plongeon, which have not yet been brought to public notice. Of this
antique figure Dr. Le Plongeon says, in a letter to the writer: "Whilst
at Mugeres Island I had the good fortune to find the statue of one of
the priestesses of the shrine of the Maya Venus, whose ruins stand at
the southernmost end of the island, on the very brink of the cliff. It
was entire, but the men, not knowing how to handle this object, when
first disinterred broke it to pieces. I was only able to save the face
and feet. They are full of interest, not only artistically speaking, but
also historically, inasmuch as they seem to prove the ancient relations
that existed between the people of Mayapan and the inhabitants of the
west coast of Africa. The teeth, like those of Chac-Mool, are filed like
a saw. This was the custom among persons of high rank in Mayapan, as it
is even to-day with some of the African tribes, whilst the sandals are
exact representations of those found on the feet of the _Guanches_, the
early inhabitants of the Canary Islands, whose mummies are yet
occasionally met with in the caves of Teneriffe and the other isles of
the group. These relics, I am certain, are the last of high art to be
found on the Island of Mugeres. The sea is fast eating the base of the
promontory where stands the shrine. Part of it has already fallen into
the sea, and in a few years not a stone will remain to indicate the
place where stood this altar."
The photographs relating to the discovery of the statue of Chac-Mool are
found in a series of twelve pictures, herewith presented in the plates
which follow. It is upon this discovery, as will be seen from his
_Mexican Memorial_, that Dr. Le Plongeon has relied more than upon any
other result of his labors, for fame and remuneration. The statue was
exhumed, according to the account in the _Mexican Memorial_, in
consequence of interpretations of certain mural tablets and
hieroglyphics, which the discoverer and his able coadjutor, Mrs. Le
Plongeon, found in the building shown in the pictures 1 and 2 on the
opposite page, upon the south-east wall of the so-called
Gymnasium,[58-*] which Dr. Le Plongeon says was erected by the queen of
Itza, to the memory of Chac-Mool, her husband. As may be seen from a
careful inspection of the picture, the stone building is decorated by a
belt of tigers, with an ornament separating them, which may have been
the "totem."
[Illustration: _Decorated Building at Chichen-Itza, Yucatan, and the
external appearance of the place whence the Statue was exhumed by Dr.
Augustus Le Plongeon._