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Show I About the Mayas of Yucatan 14 - At intervals in all parts of the region now called Moxico and Control America Ameri-ca thero aro to bo seen pyramids and tho ruins of temples and other structures, struc-tures, that from their nature and magni- tudo must havo been oroctod by people BUperior in knowledge to any discovered by tho Spanish invaders in tho early years of tho sixtoonth century, and tho dense tropical forests of tho peninsula penin-sula of Yucatan have overgrown the remains of hundreds of citios and towns, with groat buildiupslargely of cut stone and ornaniented with arvings I and stucco in a manner to make thorn rival in magnificence the best structures of Europe and Asia at tho dnto of Columbus's discovery of the West India islands. Many of these magnificent structures woro occupiod as places of worship by the Mayas when Yucatan was invaded by Gri.iolva, Cortoz and others, but the Spaniards wcro so greatly shocked by tho character of tho worsliip that they ,jhonj could see no bcaut3'' in tho buildings nor FUS f appreciate the valuo of tho nioro- L ncn giyphics and manuscripts preserved in rgo-; tho tornples. This failuro to appreciate IpiJES tho valuo of tho Indian litorature led to Pri1101 orders by tho commanders to disfcroy all K"0 ,' manuscripts and dofacfi hieroglyphic UOL writings, temi Bogan on Coast, fc Gra Spauish occupation began at the L,r ' soa coast, and gradually extended in- LSiy, land, but it has ncvor roachod tho real i . heart of tho poninsula, and thero yet WL remain towns and citios in tho intorior IXB as independent, af ter 400 years of war, jjLd as when tho invaders first landed, whoso lb ', inhabitants arc essentially of tho same jjjQH blood, as the people enslaved by the Md Spaniards. r. J . Tho independent peoplo yot living in the honrt of Yucatan aro a remnant of tho gTeat and ancient Maya race, whoso origin and sujbsequent history are now being attentively studied "by many 6ciontists. i Nearly a quarter of a century ago, when tho writor first visited Yucatan, the venerablo Dr. Augustus Le Plon-goon Plon-goon and his devoted wife wore in tho Yucatan wilderness, engaged in the study of the remaining Maya pco pie, their languuge and the ruins of wondorful monuments and cities constructed con-structed and left by their remote ancestors, an-cestors, who must havo boon highly educated edu-cated and powerful before civil war and borrowed superstition degraded them. Dr. Lo Plongeon, after spending fourteen o'cars among tho ruins and living liv-ing Mayas, studying the Ma3a tongue ana translating the writings of the ancient an-cient pooplo, wrote and published tho following in January, 1806, in his book entitled "Queen Moo and the Egyptian Sphinx: " What Has Been Found. "Tho study In Situ of tho rollcs of tho ancient Mayas has revealed such striking anologlos between their language, lan-guage, their religious conceptions, their . cosmogonlc notions, their manners and ! customs, their traditions, their architecture, archi-tecture, and tho language, tho religious concejnlons, the cosmogonlc notions, the manners and customs, tho traditions, tho architecture of tho ancient civilized nations na-tions of Asia, Africa, and Europe, of which wo have any Icnowledge, that it hns become evident to my mind at least that such similitudes aro not merely effects ef-fects of hazard, but the result of Intimate Inti-mate communications that must have existed ex-isted between all of thorn; and that distance dis-tance was no greater obstacle to their Intercourse than it Is todny to that of tho Inhabitants of tho various countries. coun-tries. "It ho3 boon, and still is, a favorite hypothesis with certain students of oth-nology oth-nology that tho western continent, now known as America, received Its population, popula-tion, therefore- Its civilization, from Asia. True, there Is a split In their ranks. They ore not quite certain If tho Immigration Immi-gration In America camo from Tartary across tho strait of Bohring, or from Hlndoostan over the wastes of tho Pacific Pa-cific ocoan. This, however, Is of Utile consequence. "Thero aro those who pretend, like Klafroth, that tho cradlo -of humanity Is to be found In the plateau of Pamir, botween the high peaks of tho Himalayan Him-alayan ranges, or, like Misses Renan and Barthelmy Salnt-Hllalre. who placo It In the roglon of the TImacras, In tho countries where tho Bible says the "Gar-don "Gar-don of Eden" was situated; while others arc equally certain man camo from Lcmurla, that, submerged continent Invented In-vented by P. L.. Schlatcr. which Haechel boHoves was tho birthplace of the primi-tlvo primi-tlvo ape-man, and which they say now lies under tho waves of the Indian ocean." Tho truth of the matter Is that these opinions are mere conjectures, simplo hypotheses, and their advocates know no more when and where man first appeared ap-peared on earth than the new-born babe knowo of his surroundings or how ho came. America Oldest Continent. The learned wranglers on this shadowy and dim point forget that all leading geologists now agreo In the opinion that America Is tho oldest known continent on tho face of tho planot; that the fossil romalns of human beings found In various vari-ous parts of It, far distant from each other, prove that man lived thero In time Immemorial, and that we have not the slightest my of light to Illumine tho darkness that surrounds tho origin of thoso primeval men. Furthermore, it Is now admitted by the generality of scientists scien-tists that man, far from descending from a slnglo pair, located' In a partlcu- lar portion of tho earth's surface, has appeared on every part of It where the biological conditions havo been propitious pro-pitious to his development and maintenance, mainte-nance, and that the production of the various species, with their distinct, well-marked well-marked anatomical and Intellectual characteristics, was due to tho difference of those biological conditions, and to the goncral forces calling forth animal life prevalent In tho places where each particular par-ticular species has appeared, and whose distinctive marks wero adapted to Its peculiar environments. "The Maya sages doubtless had reached similar conclusions, since they 'called their country Mayach; that Is, 'the land first emerged from tho bosom of tho deep.' 'the country of the shoot;' and tho Egyptians, according to Herodotus, boasted that 'their ancestors in the 'sands of tho west" were tho oldest mon on earth." Havo Samo Eight. In the opinion of Lyell, Humphrey and a host of modern geologists, regarding tho priority of America's Integrity, bo correct, what right have we to gainsay the assertion of tho Mayas and of the Egyptians In claiming likewise priority for their poople and their country? It Is but natural to suppose that intelligence intel-ligence In man was developed on the oldest continent, among Its most ancient Inhabitants, and that Its concomitant, civilization, grew apace with Its development. develop-ment. When, at the Impulso of the Instinct In-stinct of self-preservation, men linked Into clans, tribes and notions, history was bom, and with It a. desire to commemorate com-memorate the events of which It Is composed. com-posed. The art of drawing or writing was then Invented. Tho Incidents regarded re-garded as most worthy of being remembered remem-bered and preserved for the knowledge of coming generations were carved, in tho most enduring material In their possession posses-sion stone. And so It is that we find today tho cosmogonlc and religious notions, no-tions, the records of natural phenomena and predominant Incidents In tho hlstoii of their nation and of their rulers. Sculptured Sculp-tured In the walls of tho temples and iml- aces of tho civilized Mayas, Chaldeans and Egyptians, as on tho sacred rocks and In the hallowed caves of primitive uncivilized man. It Is to the monumental Inscriptions and to the books of tho Mayas that we must turn If we wish to learn about the primeval traditions of mankind, the development de-velopment of civilization, and the events that, took place centuries before the dim myths recorded as occurrences at tho beginning of our written history. Historians His-torians when writing on the univoranl history of the race, have never taken Into consideration that of man in America, and tho role that In remote ages American Amer-ican nations played on this world's stace and the Influence they exerted over the population of Asia, Africa and Europe. Still, as far as wc can scan the long vista of the past centuries, the Mayas seem to have had direct and intlmato communications with them. This fact Is Indeed no new rovelatlon, as proved by tho universality of the name Maya, whicli seems to havo been as well known by nil civilized nations, thousand of years ago, as Is today that of the English. Thus we meet with It In Japan, tho Islands Is-lands of the Pacific, Hlndoostan. Asia Minor, Egypt, Greece, Equatorial Africa. North and South America, as well as In the countries known to us ns Central Amorica, which In those times composed the Maya empire The sent of the government gov-ernment and residence of the rulers was tho peninsula of Yucatan. XVhoroon found, the nnmo Maya Is synonymous with power, wisdom and 'learning. Not a Mystery. The existence of the western continent was no more a mystery to tho Inhabitants Inhabit-ants of the countries bordering on tho Mediterranean than to those whoso shores arc bathed by tho waves of the Indian ocean. Volmikl. In his beautiful epic tho "Rumayana," nays that in times so remote re-mote that the ''sun had not yet risen above tho horizon." the Mayas, groat navigators, terrible warriors, learned architects, conquered the southern parts of the Indo-Chlncao poninsula and established estab-lished themselves thero. In tho classic authors. Greek and Iatln, wo find froquont mention of tho great Saturnlan contlnont. distant many thousand thou-sand stadia from tho Pillars of Horcules, toward tho setting sun. Plutarch, In his "Life of Solon," says that when the famod Greek legislator vjsltod Egypt (600 years before tho Christian era), Sonchls. a priest of Sals.- also Psonophls. a prlost of Hellopolls. told him that 0000 years since tho relations of the Egyptians with .Inhabitants of tho 'Tjands of the Wont" had boon Interrupted because of the mud that had mado the soa Impassable after tho destruction of Atlantis by earthquakes. Tho same author again. In bis work, "Do Faclo in Orhe Lunao," has Scylla recount lo his brother, Sampins, all he had learned consciuinc tlm Irani x t' stranger he met at Carthago returning from Transatlantic countries-Visited countries-Visited by Carthagonians. That the westom continent was visited by Carthaginians a few years before the Inditing of Plato's "Atlantis," tho portraits por-traits of men with long beards and Pho-neclan Pho-neclan features, discovered by me in 1875, sculptured on the columns and antac of the castle at Chlchen ''Yucatan) bear witness. Dlodorus Slculus attributes the discovery of the western continent to tho Phoneclans, and describes It as "a country coun-try w.hcre the landscape Is varied by very lofty mountains, and the temperature Is always soft and equable." Procoplus, alluding al-luding to It, says It Is several thousand stadia from Ogygla, and encloses the wholo soa, Into which a multitude of rivers, riv-ers, descending from the highlands, discharge dis-charge their waters."" Theopompus of Qulo, speaking of Its magnltudo, says: "Compared with It, our world Is but a small Island," and Cicero, mentioning It, makes use of nearly the same words. Aristotle, In his work, "Do Mlr-able Mlr-able Auscultatlo," giving an account of It, represents It "as a very large and fertile fer-tile country, well watered by abundant streams," and he refers to a decree enacted en-acted by the senate of Carthage toward the year 500 B. C. Intended to stem the current of emigration that had set toward the western lands, as they feared It might prove detrimental to tho prosperity of their city. The bollef In tho former existence ex-istence of extensive lands In the middle of the Atlantic, and their submergence In consequence of seismic convulsions, existed ex-isted among scientists oven as far down ag the fifth century of the Christian era. As to Islands In Atlantic. Proclus, one of the greatest scholars of. antiquity, who during thirty-five years was at the head of tho Neo-Platonlc school of Athens, and was learned In all tho sciences known In his duys, in his "Commentaries on Plato's Tlmacs," says: "Tho famous Atlantis exists no longer, but we can hardly jJoubt that It did once, for Marcellus. who wrote a history of Ethiopian affairs, says that such and so groat an Island onco existed, and that It Is evidenced by those who composed histories his-tories relative to the cxtornal sea, for they relate that In this time there were seven Islands in the Atlantic sea sacred to Proserpine, and, besides these, three of immense magnitude, sacred to Pluto, Jupiter nnd Neptune; and, besides this, the inhabltants.of tho last Island (Posel-donls) (Posel-donls) prcsorved the memory of the prodigious pro-digious magnitude of the Atlantic Island as rolated by their ancestors, and of Its governing for many periods all tho Island3 In the Atlantic sea. From this Isle one' j D.H may pass to other large Islands beyond, EnH which arc not far from the firm land near I J which Is the true sea." ; It Is well to notice that, like all tho W'M Maya authors who have described the l JjUfl awful cataclysm that caused the sub- I VwiH mergence of tho "Land of Mu," Proclus mentions the existence of ten countries j or Islands, as Plato did. Can this be a K.'H mero coincidence, or was It actual gco- (ajH graphical Icnowledge on tho part of these 1 IfrtH writers? ieM |