_7th Series._—Alphabetical symbols, expressing syllables or sounds, not words, but grouped, and the groups disposed in rows; such is the graphic system of the monuments of Otolum, near Palenque, the American Thebes; consimilar to the groups of alphabetical symbols used by the ancient Libyans, Egyptians, Persians, and also the last graphic system of the Chinese, called _Ventze_, invented by _Sse-hoang_. _8th Series._—Cursive symbols in groups, and the groups in parallel rows, derived from the last (which are chiefly monumental), and used in the manuscripts of the Mayas, Guatemalans, &c.; consimilar to the actual cursive Chinese, some demotic Egyptian, and many modifications of ancient graphic alphabets, grouping the letters or syllables. _9th Series._—Syllabic letters, expressing syllables, not simple sounds, and disposed in rows. Such is the late syllabic alphabet of the Cherokees, and many graphic inscriptions found in North and South America. Similar to the syllabic alphabets of Asia, Africa, and Polynesia. _10th Series._—Alphabets, or graphic letters, expressing simple sounds, and disposed in rows. Found in many inscriptions, medals, and coins in North and South America, and lately introduced everywhere by the European colonists; similar to the alphabets of Asia, Africa, and Europe. _11th Series._—Abbreviations, or letters standing for whole words, or part of a glyph and graphic delineation, standing and expressing the whole; used by almost all the writing nations of North and South America, as well as Asia, Europe, and Africa. _12th Series._—Numeric system of graphic signs, to express numbers. All the various kinds of signs, such as dots, lines, strokes, circles, glyphs, letters, &c., used by some nations of North and South America, as well as in the eastern continent. Some years ago, the Society of Geography, of Paris, offered a large premium for a voyage to Guatemala, and a new survey of the antiquities of Yucatan and Chiapa, chiefly those fifteen miles from Palenque, which are wrongly called by that name. I have restored to them the true name of Otolum, which is yet the name of the stream running through the ruins. I should have been inclined to undertake this voyage and exploration myself, if the civil discords of the country did not forbid it. My attention was drawn forcibly to this subject as soon as the account of those ruins, surveyed by Captain Del Rio as early as 1787, but withheld from the public eye by Spain, was published in 1822, in English. This account, which partly describes the ruins of a stone city seventy-five miles in circuit (length thirty-two English miles, greatest breadth twelve miles), full of palaces, monuments, statues, and inscriptions—one of the earliest seats of American civilization, about equal to Thebes of Egypt—was well calculated to inspire me with hopes that they would throw a great light over American history, when more properly examined.