"I have finished the explorations of ruins,--and here I would be willing to part, and to leave the reader to wander alone, and at will through the labyrinth of mystery which hangs over these ruined cities; but it would be craven to do so without turning for a moment to the important question. _Who were the people that built these cities?_ I shall narrow down this question to a ground even yet sufficiently broad,--viz., a _comparison of these remains with those of the Architecture and Sculpture of other ages and people_." It is upon this "ground" of his own choosing that we propose to attack his manœuvring,--it is the only field of argument where the necessary truth can be elicited; and he cannot object if his apparently fortified positions should be attacked, and if not sufficiently defended, he will not wonder that they should be demolished or overthrown; and if we cannot succeed in so doing, we are willing to admit, that his "Conclusions" will be to this work what the heir-apparent of the Scottish throne was to Macbeth; and the same words (except one) will speak our frank confession--viz. "The Prince of Travellers! That is a step On which I must fall down, _or else o'er-leap_, For in my way it lies." He writes: "I set out with the proposition that they are not Cyclopean, and do not resemble the works of Greek or Roman." We admit the negative to the first and last proposition, but not to the second,--for the sculpture at Uxmal is not only as fine, but distinctly of a Grecian character: the meander, or square running border, is essentially Grecian; and even his own description,--viz., "Composition of leaves and flowers, and the ornaments known everywhere as _grecques_." Here is the distinct phrase of his own selection, brought as evidence against his conclusion on the second proposition. The engravings in Waldeck's folio work of the same Ruins, substantiate every description by Stephens, as being correct: the whole façades have, to the eye, an appearance in regard to the character of the ornaments, which compels the looker-on to exclaim, "_Grecian knowledge has been there!_" "There is nothing in Europe like them. [the Ruins] We must then look to Asia or Africa. It has been supposed that at different periods of time, _vessels from Japan and China have been thrown_ UPON THE WESTERN _coast of America_. [_i. e._ on the Pacific Ocean] The civilization, cultivation, and science of those countries are known to date back from a very early antiquity." The latter sentence does not admit of question; but that the Chinese or Japanese possessed navigation, with "its means and appliances," at a period to meet these Ruins, or to cover "a very early antiquity," cannot for a moment be sustained by history or even tradition.