In justice to those historians, it should be stated, that they did not know of these architectural wonders; for if they did, no excuse can be rendered in extenuation of such an "epitaph"--thence has arisen the necessity of a New History of Ancient America; to, at least, the landing of Columbus; and even that will now wear another aspect. Mr. Stephens, in the last sentence quoted, justly reasons upon, and correctly censures the false conclusions of those historians;--yet a few pages before, he, himself, calls the _tout ensemble_ of the Uxmal Ruins, with all the beautiful Sculpture, and Classical ornaments, "a scene of _barbaric_ magnificence!" He seems afraid to combat with even the assertions of those Historians, whose "epitaph" upon an entire people, was written in ignorance of their works of Art. He says, "_it is hard to believe_" that they "perished in the rudeness of savage life,"--why, with such a gorgeous "scene" as that of Uxmal before him, _it was an impossibility_ that they could so have perished, either in the mind, or in history. The Ruins and Temple of Uxmal, he says, present "a scene of _barbaric_ magnificence!" _if they do_,--either to himself or his readers, then were Athens and the Acropolis barbaric, and Pericles and Phidias barbarians! "But there was one thing which seemed in strange want of conformity with all the rest. I have mentioned that at Ocosingo [Ruins] we saw a _wooden beam_, and at Pelanque, the remains of a wooden pole; at this place [Uxmal] _all the lintels had been of wood, and throughout the ruins, most of them were still in their places over the doors_. The lintels were heavy beams, eight or nine feet long, eighteen or twenty inches wide, and twelve or fourteen thick; the wood like that of Ocosingo, was very hard, and rang under the blow of the machete." From a further description, it appears that this peculiar wood was brought from a distance of three hundred miles. Waldeck says, that it is more durable than _lignum vitæ_, and is called by the natives _jovillo_. The strength of this wood is thus shewn by Mr. Stephens: "The position of these lintels was most trying, as they were obliged to support a solid mass of stone wall, _fourteen or sixteen feet high, and three or four feet in thickness_." From a calculation of the measurements around the base of the principal terrace, or pyramidal elevation, the entire distance is _two thousand five hundred and sixty feet_. The Temple, which stands upon a third terrace, is fronting to the East,--_i. e._ to the rising Sun,--the chief object of Worship.