It is also pretty obvious that Chi-Chen, and the other cities of Yucatan, were built by a nation of slaves. All the buildings whose remains are now visible, were evidently constructed to gratify the pride of a single man or set of men. They were monuments raised to the glory of the few at the expense of the thousands. They are not the kind of works that the people join in building of their own freewill. They answer no public purpose or convenience. No nation of freemen would spend their money or their labor in that way. We may safely conclude that the doctrines of free government were quite unknown among this ancient people—that they were governed by a despotism, and that they were taxed contrary to their will, for these, the only works which were to memorialize their servitude to posterity. So much for the builders of these ruins. The next question which occurs, when were they built? is, if possible, more difficult of solution than the one to which I have been speaking. The only way to get any idea of the age of these ruins is, by comparison with the remains of other cities of whose age we have some knowledge. Measuring their age by such a scale, the mind is startled at their probable antiquity. The pyramids and temples of Yucatan seem to have been old in the days of Pharaoh. Before the eye of the imagination— “Their lonely columns stand sublime, Flinging their shadows from on high, Like dials, which the wizard Time Had raised to count his ages by.”