[Illustration: ALTAR-PIECE, TEMPLE OF THE CROSS, PALENQUE.] TRAVELS AMONGST AMERICAN INDIANS THEIR ANCIENT EARTHWORKS AND TEMPLES; INCLUDING A JOURNEY IN GUATEMALA, MEXICO AND YUCATAN, AND A VISIT TO THE RUINS OF PATINAMIT, UTATLAN, PALENQUE AND UXMAL. BY VICE-ADMIRAL LINDESAY BRINE, (_Member of Council of the Royal Geographical and Hakluyt Societies._) _Author of “The Taeping Rebellion in China; a Narrative of its Rise and Progress.”_ LONDON SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON & COMPANY, _LIMITED_, St. Dunstan’s House, FETTER LANE, FLEET STREET, E.C. 1894. LONDON: FARMER & SONS, PRINTERS, 295, EDGWARE ROAD, W.; AND AT KENSINGTON. PREFACE. The attention of archæologists and students of the ancient Mexican hieroglyphs has latterly been directed to the mysterious subject of the origin of the astronomical and architectural knowledge that existed in Mexico, Guatemala, and Yucatan before the discovery of America. In the United States researches have also been made for the purpose of establishing, upon a scientific basis, conclusions respecting the tribes who made the extraordinary ramparts and geometrically planned inclosures in Ohio. It is a remarkable fact that although, since the period when Mexico was conquered by Cortes, an almost uninterrupted series of investigations have taken place into the peculiar conditions of civilization of the Mexican and Central American Indians, nothing satisfactory has yet been ascertained which explains the manner in which that civilization could have arisen amongst those exceptionally instructed races. Las Casas who, in the sixteenth century, lived for many years amongst the Indians in his diocese of Chiapas and Yucatan and saw several of the temples in that region, declared that the land contained a secret. That secret may possibly be discovered if the hieroglyphs and symbolic characters of the Toltecs and Aztecs can be interpreted. But until trustworthy methods of decipherment are determined, all conclusions, in default of other evidence, must necessarily be conjectural.