The Mayas succeeded to the Colhuas, whose era terminated one
thousand years before the time of Christ; from them they received their
alphabet. It has come to us through Bishop Landa, one of the early
missionary bishops, who confesses to having burnt a great number of Maya
books because they contained nothing but the works of the devil. He
fortunately, however, preserved for posterity the alphabet of this
people. We present it herewith.
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LANDA'S ALPHABET (From "North Amer. of Antiquity," p. 434.)
Diego de Landa was the first bishop of Yucatan. He wrote a history of
the Mayas and their country, which was preserved in manuscript at Madrid
in the library of the Royal Academy of History. . . . It contains a
description and explanation of the phonetic alphabet of the Mayas.
Landa's manuscript seems to have lain neglected in the library, for
little or nothing was heard of it until it was discovered by the French
priest Brasseur de Bourbourg, who, by means of it, has deciphered some
of the old American writings. He says, 'the alphabet and signs explained
by Landa have been to me a Rosetta stone.
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