Regarding this to be important, I have endeavored to present a comprehensive view of the civilization of the Mound-builders, Cliff-dwellers, and Pueblos, and to bring to the attention of the reader the traditional history and architectural remains of the Mayas of Yucatan and the Nahuas of Mexico. Only the probable origin and the most remote period of the growth of these latter peoples could receive attention within the limits prescribed for this work, since it is my design that this volume shall serve as a manual of information relating to the earliest period of North-American Antiquity, and as an introduction to Ancient American History. My material relating to the Mound-builders has been drawn almost entirely from the Smithsonian Reports, the Proceedings of scientific societies, and private memoirs. Still it is but justice to one honored co-laborer in the same field, Col. J. W. Foster, to say that his excellent work, _The Pre-Historic Races of the U. S._, has been of great service in our investigation of this subject. Although his sources of information have been, with few exceptions, before me, my appreciation of his work is attested by my constant reference to it. Nevertheless, the wonderful advances which have been made in Mound-exploration since the issue of the _Pre-Historic Races_, called for a fresh treatment of the subject. On the Mayas and Nahuas the following manuscript works in the possession of the Congressional Library at Washington were consulted, and yielded valuable material: _Las Casas_: Historia Apologética de las Indias occidentals, 4 vols. folio. _Las Casas_: Historia de Indias, 4 vols. folio. _Panes_ (_D. Diego_): Fragmentos de Historia de Nueva España, folio. _Echevarria y Veitia_: Historia del origen de gentes que poblaron la America Septentrional, 1755, 3 vols. folio (about one-fourth of the work is published in Kingsborough’s Mex. Antiq., vol. viii). _Escalante in Teniente_ (_Jose Cortes_): Memoria sobre las Provincias del Norte de Nueva España 1799, folio. _Duran_ (_Diego_): Historia Antigua de la Nueva España 1585, 3 vols. folio (part of the work has been published in Mexico). These, together with the large number of printed books relating to America in the Congressional Library added to works in my possession, afforded an ample field for research.