Memoir Of An Eventful Expedition In Central America

IN the second volume of his travels in Central Americäthan 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.