rife during long ages. For here, in reckoning
time, we must not count by centuries but millenaries. We do not, in
thus speaking, indulge in conjectures--for, verily, the study of
the walls leaves no room for supposition to him who quietly
investigates and compares.

How far Mrs. Le Plongeon and myself have been able to interpret the
mural paintings, bas-reliefs, sculptures and hieroglyphics, the
results of our labors show. (Some of them have been lately
published in the "Illustration Hispano-Americana" of Madrid.) The
excavating of the magnificent statue of the Itza king, Chac-Mool,
buried about five thousand years ago by his wife, the queen of
Chichen, at eight metres under ground (that statue has just been
wrenched from our hands by the Mexican government, without even an
apology, but the photographs may be seen at the residence of Mr.
Henry Dixon, No. 112 Albany street, Regent park, London, and the
engravings of it in the "Ilustracion Hispano-Americana"); the
knowledge of the place where lies that of Huuncay, the elder
brother of Chac-Mool, interred at twelve metres under the
surface--of the site where the _H-Menes_ hid their libraries
containing the history of their nation--the knowledge and sciences
they had attained, would of itself be an answer to Professor
Mommsen's ridiculous assertion, that we are anxious to find what
_cannot be known_, or what would be _useless_ if discovered. It is
not the place here to refute the learned professor's sayings; nor
is it worth while. Yet I should like to know if he would refuse as
_useless_ the treasures of King Priam because made of gold that
belongs to the archaic times--what gold does not? Or, if he would
turn up his nose at the wealth of Agamemnon because he knows that
the gold and precious stones that compose it were wrought by
artificers who lived four thousand years ago, should Dr. Schliemann
feel inclined to offer them to him. What says Mr. Mommsen?

Besides my discovery of the statues, bas-reliefs, etc., etc., which
would be worth many thousands of pounds sterling to--if the Mexican
government did not rob them from--the discoverers, the study of the
works of generations that have preceded us affords me the pleasure
of following the tracks of the human mind through the long vista of
ages to