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