For a long time I was so distracted with the multitude of objects which crowded upon my mind, that I could take no note of them in detail. It was not until some hours had elapsed, that my curiosity was sufficiently under control to enable me to examine them with any minuteness. The Indians for many leagues around, hearing of my arrival, came to visit me daily; but the object of my toil was quite beyond their comprehension. They watched my every motion, occasionally looking up to each other with an air of unfeigned astonishment; but whether to gather an explanation from the faces of their neighbors, or to express their contempt for my proceedings, I have permitted myself to remain in doubt up to this day. Of the builders or occupants of these edifices which were in ruins about them, they had not the slightest idea; nor did the question seem to have ever occurred to them before. After the most careful search, I could discover no traditions, no superstitions, nor legends of any kind. Time and foreign oppression had paralyzed, among this unfortunate people, those organs which have been ordained by the God of nations to transfer history into tradition. All communication with the past here seems to have been cut off. Nor did any allusion to their ancestry, or to the former occupants of these mighty palaces and monumental temples, produce the slightest thrill through the memories of even the oldest Indians in the vicinity. Defeated in my anticipations from this quarter, I addressed myself at once to the only course of procedure which was likely to give me any solution of the solemn mystery. I determined to devote myself to a careful examination of these ruins in detail. DESCRIPTION OF THE RUINS OF CHI-CHEN. [Illustration: Indian knife and sheath.]