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Here we are close to the scene of that wonderful and mysterious Central American prehistoric civilization, which has left for our antiquarians and learned men a life-work to decipher the still dumb symbols carved on its stupendous ruins. In Guatemala, and near this railway, are Copan and Quiriguá, and probably other still undiscovered dead cities.
Accepting the reports of explorers as correct, there is evidence in the ruins that Quirigua is older than Copan, and that Copan is older than Palenque. The old monuments in Yucatan represent several distinct epochs in the ancient history of that peninsula. Some of them are kindred to those hidden in the great forest, and remind us more of Palenque than of Uxmal.
The sides are covered with inscriptions similar in appearance to those at Copan. Some of the other standing obelisks are higher than this. It seems reasonable to infer that the structures at Quirigua were more ancient than those at Copan. The ruins called Mitla are in the Mexican State of Oxaca, about twelve leagues east from the city of Oxaca.
His successors continued to form new establishments, and in 1753, Santa Rosa, Guasco-alto, Casablanca, Bellaisla, Florida, Coulemu, and Quirigua were founded by Don Domingo Rosas; but these have never flourished like the former.
We may suppose it to have been an old city at the time of the Toltec invasion, although not one of the first cities built by that more ancient and more cultivated people by whom this old American civilization was originated. The present condition of the monuments at Quirigua is still more suggestive of great age.
"Considerable excavation has been done in Central America," went on Professor Bumper, "and certain ruins have been brought to light. Near us are those of Copan, while toward the frontier are those of Quirigua, which are even better preserved than the former. We may visit them if we have time.
Not very far away, in the neighboring State of Guatemala, on the right bank of the River Motagua, to which the Copan is a tributary, are the ruins called Quirigua. It is manifest that a great city once stood here. These ruins have a close resemblance to those at Copan, but they appear to be much older, for they have, to a great extent, become little more than heaps of rubbish.
We may as reasonably suppose Copan, Quirigua, or some other old ruin, to have been Xibalba. Those who attempt to believe this old American civilization was brought across the Atlantic by the Phœnicians in very remote times, assume, against the plain testimony of the monuments, that the Colhuas came to America from some country on the Mediterranean.
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