ith its own wars, and
the knowledge could not be procured except at the price of
blood. Two young men of good constitution, and who could afford
to spend five years, might succeed. If the object of search
prove a phantom, in the wild scenes of a new and unexplored
country, there are other objects of interest; but, if real,
besides the glorious excitement of such a novelty, they will
have something to look back upon through life. As to the
dangers, they are always magnified, and, in general, peril is
discovered soon enough for escape. But, in all probability, if
any discovery is made, it will be made by the Padres. As for
ourselves, to attempt it alone, ignorant of the language, and
with the mozos who were a constant annoyance to us, was out of
the question. The most we thought of, was to climb to the top
of the sierra, thence to look down upon the mysterious city;
but we had difficulties enough in the road before us; it would
add ten days to a journey already almost appalling in the
perspective; for days the sierra might be covered with clouds;
in attempting too much, we might lose all; Palenque was our
great point, and we determined not to be diverted from the
course we had marked out."--_Vol. ii., p. 193-196._

Mr. Stevens appears to have had some confidence in the Padre's
statement, and expresses a belief that the race of the aboriginal
inhabitants of Central America is not extinct, but that, scattered
perhaps and retired, like our own Indians, into wildernesses which have
never been penetrated by white men--erecting buildings of "lime and
stone," "with ornaments of sculpture, and plastered," "large courts,"
and "lofty towers, with high ranges of steps," and carving on tablets of
stone mysterious hieroglyphs, there are still in secluded cities
"unconquered, unvisited, and unsought aborigines." It is stated in a
pamphlet before us, that such a city was discovered in 1849 by three
adventurous travellers, and that one of them succeeded in bringing to
New York two specimens of its diminutive and peculiar inhabitants--the
persons now being exhibited in Broadway. Of the credibility of this
account we express no opinion, but the "Aztec Children" have the
phrenological and general appearance of the ancient Mexican sculptures,
and may well be regarded for their probable origin, their physical
structure, or their mere appearanc