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Transcriber's Note

Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. A list of corrections
is found at the end of the text. Inconsistencies in spelling and
hyphenation have been maintained. A list of inconsistently spelled
and hyphenated words is found at the end of the text.

Oe ligatures have been expanded.





  MEMOIR
  OF AN
  EVENTFUL EXPEDITION
  IN
  CENTRAL AMERICA;

  RESULTING IN THE DISCOVERY OF THE IDOLATROUS CITY OF
  IXIMAYA,

  In an unexplored region; and the possession of two

  REMARKABLE AZTEC CHILDREN,

  Descendants and Specimens of the Sacerdotal Caste, (now
  nearly extinct,) of the Ancient Aztec Founders of the
  Ruined Temples of that Country,

  DESCRIBED BY

  JOHN L. STEVENS, ESQ.,
  AND OTHER TRAVELLERS.

  Translated from the Spanish of
  PEDRO VELASQUEZ,
  of SAN SALVADOR.


  NEW YORK:
  E. F. Applegate, Printer, 111 Nassau Street.
  1850.




  PROFILE ILLUSTRATIONS
  FROM
  CENTRAL AMERICAN RUINS,
  OF
  ANCIENT RACES STILL EXISTING
  IN IXIMAYA.


[Illustration]

The above three figures, sketched from engravings in "Stevens's Central
America," will be found, on personal comparison, to bear a remarkable
and convincing resemblance, both in the general features and the
position of the head, to the two living Aztec children, now exhibiting
in the United States, of the ancient sacerdotal caste of _Kaanas_, or
Pagan Mimes, of which a few individuals remain in the newly discovered
city of Iximaya. See, the following _Memoir_, page 31.

[Illustration]

These two figures, sketched from the same work, are said, by Senor
Velasquez, in the unpublished portion of his narrative, to be
"irresistible likenesses" of the equally exclusive but somewhat more
numerous priestly caste of _Mahaboons_, still existing in that city,
and to which belonged Vaalpeor, an official guardian of those children,
as mentioned in this memoir. Velasquez states that the likeness of
Vaalpeor to the right hand figure in the frontispiece of Stevens' second
volume, which is here also the one on the right hand, was as exact, in
outline, as if the latter had been a daguerreotype miniature.

While writing his "Narrative" after his return to San Salvador, in the
spring of the present year, (1850,) Senor Velasquez was favored, by an
American gentleman of that city, with a copy of "Layard's Nineveh," and
was forcibly struck with the close characteristic resemblance of the
faces in many of its engravings to those of the inhabitants in general,
as a peculiar family of mankind, both of Iximaya and its surrounding
region. The following are sketches, (somewhat imperfect,) of two of the
male faces to which he refers:

[Illustration]

And the following profile, from the same work, is pronounced by
Velasquez to be equally characteristic of the female faces of that
region, making due allowance for the superb head dresses of tropical
plumage, with which he describes the latter as being adorned, instead of
the male galea, or close cap, retained in the engraving.

[Illustration]

These illustrations, slight as they are, are deemed interesting, because
the Iximayans assert their descent from a very ancient Assyrian colony
nearly co-temporary with Nineveh itself--a claim which receives strong
confirmation, not only from the hieroglyphics and monuments of Iximaya,
but from the engravings in Stevens' volumes of several remarkable
objects, (the inverted winged globe especially,) at Palenque--once a
kindred colony.

It should have been stated in the following Memoir, that Senor
Velasquez, on his return to San Salvador, caused the two Kaana children
to be baptized into the Catholic Church, by the Bishop of the Diocese,
under the names of Maximo and Bartola Velasquez.




  MEMOIR
  OF A RECENT
  EVENTFUL EXPEDITION
  IN
  CENTRAL AMERICA.


In the second volume of his travels in Central America--than which no
work ever published in this country, has created and maintained a higher
degree of interest, both at home and abroad--Mr. Stevens speaks with
enthusiasm of the conversations he had held with an intelligent and
hospitable Padre, or Catholic priest, of Santa Cruz del Quiche, formerly
of the village of Chajul; and of the exciting information he had
received from him, concerning immense and marvellous antiquities in the
surrounding country, which, to the present hour, remain entirely unknown
to the world. The Padre told him of vast ruins, in a deserted and
desolate region, but four leagues from Vera Paz, more extensive than
Quiche itself; and of another ruined city, on the other side of the
great traversing range of the Cordilleras, of which no account has been
given. But the most stimulating story of all, was the existence of a
_living_ city, far on the other side of the great sierra, large and
populous, occupied by Indians of the same character, and in precisely
the same state, as those of the country in general, before the discovery
of the continent and the desolating conquests of its invaders.

The Padre averred that, in younger days, he had climbed to the topmost
ridge of the sierra, a height of 10 or 12,000 feet, and from its naked
summit, looking over an immense plain, extending to Yucatan and the Gulf
of Mexico, had seen, with his own eyes, in the remote distance, "a large
city, spread over a great space, with turrets white and glittering in
the sun." His account of the prevalent Indian report concerning it was,
that no white man had ever reached that city; that the inhabitants, who
speak the Maya language, are aware that a race of white strangers has
conquered the whole country around them, and have hence murdered every
white man that has since attempted to penetrate their territory. He
added that they have no coin or other circulating medium; no horses,
mules, or other domestic animals, except fowls, "and keep the cocks
under ground to prevent their crowing being heard." This report of their
slender resources for animal food, and of their perpetual apprehension
of discovery, as indicated in this inadequate and childish expedient to
prevent it, is, in most respects, contradicted by that of the
adventurous expedition about to be described, and which, having passed
the walls of their city, obtained better information of their internal
economy and condition than could have been acquired by any Indians at
all likely to hold communication with places so very remote from the
territory as Quiche or Chajul.

The effects of these extraordinary averments and recitals of the Padre,
upon the mind of Mr. Stevens, together with the deliberate conclusions
which he finally drew from them, is best expressed in his own language.

     "The interest awakened in us, was the most thrilling I ever
     experienced. One look at that city, was worth ten years of an every
     day life. If he is right, a place is left where Indians and a city
     exist, as Cortez and Alvarado found them; there are living men who
     can solve the mystery that hangs over the ruined cities of America;
     who can, perhaps, go to Copan and read the inscriptions on its
     monuments. No subject more exciting and attractive presents itself
     to any mind, and the deep impression in my mind, will never be
     eff