The short period to which I was, unfortunately, restricted in the examination of these sublime ruins, (and these remarks will apply to all which have come under my observation,) has permitted me to touch but slightly even upon those which have appeared to be the most prominent. Months might be spent among them, and then one would only have entered upon the threshold of an investigation into their wonders. A moonlight scene from the Governor’s House is one of the most enchanting sights I ever witnessed. The moon had risen about half way up from the horizon, and was now throwing its strong silver light over the whitened façade of _our house_. Castles, palaces, and falling pyramids were distinctly to be traced in the foreground. At a distance, walls and mounds, rising above the green verdure of the land, looked like a multitude of small islands in a calm summer’s sea. All was quiet but the chirp of the cricket, or the occasional scream of some night-bird of the wood. It was a scene of natural beauty such as I never have seen realized upon canvass of the artist, or even in the pages of poetry. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER IX. Introductory Facts—Ruins of Yucatan and other parts of Mexico—Ruins of North America—Mississippi and Missouri—Look-Out Mountain—Ohio River—Mount Joliet and others—Indian Races—Ledyard—Bradford—Dr. Morton—Diversity of Opinions—Pyramids of Egypt—Speculations—Vassalage—Comparison—Traditions—Embalming—Priesthood—Siamese—Japanese—Astronomy and Mythology. There are three questions which will very naturally occur to those of my readers who have done me the honor to follow me through the preceding details and statistics:—1st. By whom were these ruins built? 2d. When were they built? And 3d. For what purpose? Before answering the first question it is proper to state, that all the ruins of which mention has been made in the preceding pages, and by Mr. Stephens and by Waldeck, are not a tithe of those still remaining uninvestigated on the American continent, and, perhaps I may add, in the single province of Yucatan. Mounds, tumuli, pyramidal structures, and ruins of cities, have been seen from the southern extremity of South America even to the western side of the Rocky mountains—from Florida to the western lakes. There is every reason to presume that the interior of Yucatan, and other portions of Mexico, contain remains of even a more striking character than those it has been my province to describe. The Ohio valley and its vicinage are supposed to have been covered with more than five thousand villages, the largest of which stood near the junction of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers.[10] Regular and scientifically constructed works of a defensive character, between the Ohio river and the great lakes, are still to be traced; some of which occupied, it is thought, more than one hundred acres of ground.