[35-*] Description of an ancient city near Palenque. Page 32. [35-†] Prescott’s Conquest of Mexico. Vol. I., page 101. [36-*] The Native Races of the Pacific States. By Hubert Howe Bancroft. Vol. II., page 771. [44-*] _Historia de Yucatan._ Cogolludo. Lib. III, cap. VII. [45-*] North American Review. Boston, April, 1876. No. 251, page 265. [48-*] Remarks on the centres of ancient civilization in Central America, and their geographical distribution. Address before the American Geographical Society, by Dr. C. Hermann Berendt. New York, 1876. DR. LE PLONGEON IN YUCATAN. HIS ACCOUNT OF DISCOVERIES. DR. LE PLONGEON IN YUCATAN. THE DISCOVERY OF A STATUE CALLED CHAC-MOOL, AND THE COMMUNICATIONS OF DR. AUGUSTUS LE PLONGEON CONCERNING EXPLORATIONS IN THE YUCATAN PENINSULA. [Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, April 25, 1877.] The most perfect remains of a high degree of early civilization on this continent are to be found in ruins in the central portions of America. Proofs of the extraordinary advancement of the inhabitants of those regions, in architecture and art, at an early period, are not derived alone or principally from the accounts of Spanish voyagers and chroniclers, which agree substantially in the statements of their observations, but much more from the well-preserved ruins of numerous beautiful buildings, constructed of stone, many of them ornamented with bas-reliefs and hieroglyphics. In Mexico, about which Spanish historians of the time of Cortez and after, have written with more particularity, the vestiges of the civilization of the 16th or previous centuries have, in a great measure, been obliterated by the more complete and destructive subjugation suffered at the hands of the conquerors, and by the continuous occupation of the acquired provinces. Probably the early constructions of the Mexicans were not generally composed of so durable materials as those of the neighboring peninsula. Without discussing this point, the fact remains that Yucatan, together with much of the territory of Guatemala, Chiapas, and Tabasco, is strewn with ruins of a character which command the admiration and challenge the investigation of antiquaries. Waldeck, Stephens, Charnay, and Brasseur de Bourbourg, have brought these wonders of an extinct civilization to the knowledge of the world. Since their investigations have ceased, and until recently, but little has been done in this field. In 1873, however, Dr. Augustus Le Plongeon, a native of the island of Jersey, of French parentage, together with his wife, Mrs. Alice Dixon Le Plongeon, an English lady, attracted by the wealth of opportunity offered to them for archæological study in Yucatan, visited that country, and have been and are still actively engaged in exploring its ruins, photographing and taking plans of the buildings, and in making excavations, which have resulted in securing to the scientific world, a masterpiece of antique